What follows are a few examples of Webasto sunroofs and some other open air designs that I have found. If any of the pictures are owned by a specific person please let me know so that I can give them credit or remove them if they so desire. If you have any pictures for me to include please send them along.
NEW INFORMATION - Webasto Parts Manual
First is the Webasto unit for my 1956 Ghia. These sunroofs are very rare and worth the time and effort to restore. Note the wires that run down the side to hold the cover tight to the roof. The front header bow is wood as is the rear tack strip. Inside, a heavy metal frame for the opening is welded in place. The roof skin is then rolled over the from to give a factory look. I will restore the unit in the old roof skin before taking everything apart and moving it over to my 1956 Ghia and installing it like they would have done in the 50s.
I restored a 63 sunroof bug and the units are VERY simlar in construction. Webasto still exists today selling sunroofs and heaters.
Here are some samples of how we plan to restore the Webasto. We have completely rebuild the front header bow. It still needs to be sanded to the right contour. My wife Karen help to rough out the headliner so the we can take it to a shop and see if they can do the final work. We want to check all of this out before cutting the hole into the 56 Ghia. Right now I am searching for some headliner pictures from any Webasto installation.
You can see some of the straps that we are testing to pull the headers along. The top is to have cables down each side. These cables are sewn into the outer edge of the cover. Duct tape was used on the front wood bow as we try to find the right length of the headliner.
I finally stripped the frame out of the sunroof clip. The Salvage Operation! I spent about 1/2 hour cutting the frame loose with a cutting disk. I then spend the next 2 hours knocking off the remaining metal a the spot welds with a chisel. Finally the last hour or so was spent cleaning things up with a right angle grinder and then using some chemicals on the metal to keep it from rusting. 12/16/06
Finally, the installation of the sunroof frame. It took about 10 hours to cut out the opening.
It took about another 10 hours to weld in the frame.
Ken H. send me these pictures of a 58 Webasto roof section that he removed.
This 1956 Karmann Ghia that was built in 1955 is an especially nice Webasto Ghia. It also had other high performance modifications.
Here Darby send my a photo of a 74 Karman Ghia with what could be a Webasto unit. Below it is a 60s Ghia. It too looks like is might be a Webasto unit based upon the amount of the roof left to the rear windows.
Here is a Beetle sunroof work over to fit into a Ghia roof. Lots of work but a nice job. Notice how little of the rear metal is left towords the rear window. Other Beetle features like the front rain gutter and other holes are visable.
How about T-Tops. This had to be a lot of work and it turned out quite nice. Kind of the SunBug of Ghias.
